mr. mittens

one of my pantheon of heros. i just unabashedly love this woman. she's a genius-one of the few to emerge from the 60s. and she is not a lame hippie folkie-she evolved into an intelligent pop writer right up there with hal david( who wrote the lyrics to all those great burt bacharach songs), headed straight to jazz luminary. her lyrics and song structures are amazing- you always know a joni song sometimes just from one goddamn chord. ' blue' might be my favorite of her songs-i feel myself nearly bursting into tears when she first starts singing- every single time i hear it. why does everyone always covers 'big yellow taxi'- a song which she considers a piece of crap( her words paraphrased not mine. when i saw her live she went on about being perplexed that everyone was covering a song she personally considered one of the worst things she ever wrote.) frankly, i can't see where too many people could pull off a primo joni song- too complicated and requires such a high degree of musicianship. who could cover ' amelia',' edith and the kingpin' or ' the hissing of summer lawns' effectively? pretty much no one.

she's a triple scorpio- which just scares me. some of the most fascinating and complex lyrics around from a woman who analyses her feelings and relationships like an exacting yet poetic surgeon- completely unlike the drippy whoozy girl folkbots of her generation or the love -dove- above content of male writers of the time and none of the assholey smug sarcasm of a dylan. hers were the only songs about drugs from the 60s that questioned and deeply criticized the hippy dippy slide into abuse and degradation as well as heaping scorn on the music industry for it's narrowness and ' star machinary' being the death of all genuine and heartfelt creativity. this segment comes with her commentary about the song which is important. the song is everything i thought it was. an honest fucking musician.an honest fucking human! i'm not sure how many people can see how difficult it was to be that open and honest and publically exposed in a time of such sorrow and loss- most people can't even willingly, honestly convey their emotions and feelings to their own loved ones privately. imagine millions of people buying the recorded documentation of your heart breaking and taking your sanity nearly along with it.

we really need to have national treasures in this country as they do in england. joni is originally from canada but has lived here for a long time by choice. she's our kate bush.